The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-16
A BIG RIOT AT A PICNIC.
A GALA DAY AND A GLORIOUS
FIGHT AT THUNDERBOLT.

The First Battalion Georgia Volunteers
| Celebrate their Anniversary and n
! Lively Scrimmage Takes Place-Two
Negroes are Shot and Number OF
Heads are Cracked-How One Man
Put to Rout Whole Company.
The First Battalion Georgia Volunteers
(colored) celebrated its seventh anniversary
yesterday in manner that was both ami
mated and newsy. Before o'clock three
companies and the cadets fell into line, and,
headed by the Union Cornet Band, they
paraded the streets of the city. Conclud-
ing their line of march they proceeded to
the Coast Line railroad and took the train
for Thunderbolt, where the day was to be
spent. An enormous crowd Of negroes made
a holiday of the occasion and the picnic
grounds were thronged with more than
1000 of them. Rife practice. base ball,
! dancing, speech making horse racing and
all the accessories of an affair OF this kind
were on hand, not excluding beer and mean
whisky. The morning passed pleasantly
enough, not a thing occurring to disturb
the serenity of the picnicers. The sports
were INDUCED in with the utmost good hui
NOR and pleasantness, but the beer had not
begun to work them.
HE TOUCHED A TENDER SPOT.
By dinner time the crowd was growing
| hilarious, and the cooler heads knew that
| trouble was brewing, but none of them an
ticipated the glorious free fight that was in
store for them. About 2 o'clock John
| Reilly, the Quartermaster of the Lone Star
Cadets, and Charles Fox, a guest, were stand
| ing near the dancing hall talking about the
base ball game. Some misunderstanding
arose between them and their words began
| to wax warm as their ire rose. The dispute
was hot, but no conflict occurred until Fox
| mentioned the name of dusky maiden of
whom Reilly was enamored and pronounced
1t so trippingly on the tongue that Reilly
was overcome by anger, and some say he
struck Fox with the butt of his
musket, but he hit Fox on the head so he
| was not badly injured Fox drew a knife
and started for Reilly with fire in his eye
but Reilly was too quick for him. Drawing
a revolver he fired at Fox and struck him
in the chin, the ball ranging upward and
| coming out of the cheek. Henry Jenkens,
who was standing near by, sprang between
the two to prevent further conflict, but
Reillys blood was up and he was on the
shoot. He fired twice at Jenkins, who was
struck in the upper lip by one of the balls
1T WAS A LOVELY FIGHT.
The fight then began in the finest style
| A crowd had collected long before the third
shot was fired, and the smoke had not been
| blown away before every man in the crowd
had out either a pistol or billy. Strange
| to say there was no showing of cold steel,
but pistols and hllies were brought into the
| game and used with intense interest. No
less than fifty shots were fired, though
no injuries resulted from any of
them. There was a regular fusilade
for about three minutes, and mingled
4 until Aha IL IF ha slxya
could be heard the thump of the billies as
they descended upon various heads. Not a
! man in that excited multitude knew what
he was fighting about, but they all knew
that they were in it and had to fight it out,
so on they went In very few minutes
the battle ceased but the mementoes of it
| will be worn by some of the cOmbatants all
their lives. The number of sore and bleed
ing heads in that crowd was almost incredi-
BILE. Handkerchiefs were brought into
requisition and during the afternoon many
of the dancers wore bandages to keep
together several pieces of their scalps.
CHASING THE FUGITIVE.
The ludicrous part of the affair came as
the aftercap. 1t was discovered that
Reilly had taken advantage of the disorder
that prevailed during the melee to make his
escape. The officers thought he ought to be
caught, so a company was called to arms
and started in pursuit. They followed the
path that the fugitive was supposed to
have taken, and finally caught a glimpse
of thu white trousers of the object
of the chase in little clump of bushes
Halt was called, and the captain was pre-
pairing to deploy in order to surround the
bushes, when Reilly rose up and opened fire
on the company with his revolver Ten
seconds later Reilly had undisputed posses
sion of the field. Not soldier was to be
seen, and a minnie ball could not have
caught one if it had turned a corner.
That too, too solid flesh did melt
or do something of the sort, for where but a
moment before stood a company of troops
was then TO be seen nothing but the down
trodden grass and broken bushes that were
evidence of rapid movement to the rear at
double quick.
A THREE-CORNERED FIGHT.
The remainder of the day was not at all
dull, but the only notable incident was a
three-cornered fight that sInacks of "Mr
Midshipman Eas, - The Volunteers were
keeping the crowd off the race track while
the races were going on and one individ-
ual, whose name is unknown, started to
cross the track to get into the paddock
Capt. Julius Maxwell headed him off, and
told him he must go back The fellow said
he would return if Maxwell would give him
a chance.
Whether the Captain refused to give him
n chance, or the unknown became obstrep-
erous is shrouded in mystery, but at any
rate Scott Griffin, who is a member of one
of the companies, stepped up and told the
Captain that he would render him any as
sistance he needed in enforcing order
Upon receiving this assurance the Captain
let go his left and struck the unknown
then hit Griffin twice There was a little
surprise manifested ali around, but the next
moment the three clinched and contest far
more interesting than any between the
horses took place. When the fight was over
Griffin found that the unknown had been
welding billy and that he had cash i'll
his scalp from which blood was pouring
This ended the principal events of the
day, for after it the jolly picnceTe began
returning TO the city and the crowd thinncd
ont. As to the shooting Scrape the general
sentiment is that Fox was responsible for it
all and that he got just what he deserved.